


The Appointment

by aureate



Series: Flaw in the System [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 03:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16054895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aureate/pseuds/aureate
Summary: Jihoon visits TOUCH Headquarters to find out what's actually happening.





	The Appointment

**Author's Note:**

> This is a part of [Flaw in the System](https://twitter.com/cheolhuns/status/1018075016548642817), a social media au. Please read it first. 
> 
> Not beta-ed. Sorry if it's messy!

 

The number on the small screen is changing too slowly, Jihoon thinks as he rides the elevator to the floor he was informed to go to. It is so slow that he considers to go back and just forget about everything. He doesn’t even know what he is doing here, coming to a place he never knows to get an information he has no clue about. 

 

The elevator dings, signalling that he has arrived at the seventeenth floor, TOUCH’s designated floor in the building. He steps out of the door after straightening his shirt—just a habit he picks up when he gets nervous—and walks towards the glass door with a neat typography sticker of the company logo on it. It looks like a prestigious place, and Jihoon wouldn’t know if an IT company could make this much.

 

A tall security guard opens up the door for him and welcomes him with a slight grunt. There is an even less friendlier guy in his office, so he disregards this easily. He lets himself being led to the front desk where a pretty woman in her early 20s smiles at him expectantly. 

 

“Good afternoon! Welcome to TOUCH,” she says with a cheery voice. The security guy has left him to guard to door again. “Can I help you, Sir?”

 

“Uhh,” Jihoon doesn’t know if he could ask to meet the CEO, out of all people, just like that. When he attends meetings, he is usually automatically welcomed by his client at the lobby. “I am here to meet Choi Seungcheol.”

 

The woman beams up at him, “Mr. Choi? Did you book an appointment with him already?” 

 

“He asked me to just come, so I’m not sure about that,” he answers truthfully. 

 

“Let me ring him up just a bit!” She says, placing the phone receiver at her ear as she dials a series of number quickly.

 

He waits.

 

The call isn’t answered by the first time, so the woman tries again. “Maybe he’s not in his room,” she says, frowning. She tries again for the third time, and Jihoon starts to think if this is, indeed, a bad decision. “I don’t think he has a schedule to attend, though.” 

 

“It’s okay,” Jihoon rakes his fingers up his hair, feeling rather frustrated. "I think I’ll just go—“

 

“Minkyung?”

 

The woman turns her head to the source of the voice instantly, “Mr. Yoon! Did you happen to see Mr. Choi? Someone is looking for him but I can’t reach him.”

 

“Seungcheol’s guest?” The newly coming man pipes up with interest. Jihoon looks up to him and nods slightly. He looks taller than him, perhaps around Wonwoo’s height, and his face is something he would call pretty. His strong cheekbones makes him look like a Greek god, and his reddish brown hair makes him even more so. “What is your name?”

 

“Lee Jihoon,” he answers shortly, and the man’s face lights up.

 

“Oh! I can take it from here, Minkyung. Seungcheol is rather busy right now,” he says, approaching Jihoon at the from desk. He extends his hand, “I’m Yoon Jeonghan. You can follow me to my room while waiting for him.”

 

Jihoon shakes the man’s hand, but something tells him not to trust this guy. He looks like someone who smiles but holds a grenade at the back of his hand, though Jihoon doubts he would do that to him. He is guided through a long corridor with a lot of glass doors. He could see people working on their laptops and making notes on the whiteboard in the rooms; not much difference with how he has in his office, but they actually write codes and— _are those dating advices?_

 

Jeonghan opens a wooden door at the right of the end of the corridor and lets him in. It is pretty spacey inside, more than Jihoon’s own room at his office, and is decorated neatly, too. There are certificates hung on the wall, some indicating the company’s achievements, and some the man’s own achievements. Jihoon is busy looking around that he doesn’t notice a man sitting at the black couch just next to the window.

 

“This is Seungcheol’s guest, Lee Jihoon,” Jeonghan answers the confused look at the other man’s face. Unlike Jeonghan, this guy’s features are softer, and his hair is jet black. “This is  Joshua, both of us found the company along side of Seungcheol. I handle the operations department, while Joshua is taking care of the financial things.”

 

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Joshua offers him a sweet smile, which Jihoon couldn’t help but return. He likes this guy’s aura better. “Please sit down, Seungcheol is bound to come here in a while,” he says, gesturing Jihoon to sit at the single sofa next to him. "Get him a drink, Hannie.”

 

Jeonghan takes a seat next to Joshua, casually draping his arm around the other man’s shoulder. “He won’t be here for long,” he smiles up at Jihoon, who is still considering where to sit down. The space near Joshua seems to be safer, but he would need to take more steps to reach it. “Right, Jihoon?”

 

He doesn’t really like how they keep acting like they are familiar with them. Sure, they are the higher-ups and probably have access to his data and everything, but still, it feels unsettling. 

 

“Sure,” he still smiles, finally deciding to sit near the nicer looking guy. “Do you guys know why I’m here?”

 

“To meet Seungcheol?” Joshua asks innocently, his eyes are unnecessarily twinkling and Jihoon doesn’t even know why he does that.

 

“Yeah, but why? I don’t understand—“

 

“How are you enjoying TOUCH so far, Jihoon?” Jeonghan cuts him off. “Is everything fine? All fun?”

 

Joshua rolls his eyes slightly, then he turns his attention back to the phone he is holding the whole time.

 

“I… Yeah, it was fun. It helped me a lot to have someone to talk to,” he answers truthfully. He has went through a lot with his bot.

 

“That’s good to hear, because that’s exactly why we made TOUCH in the first place. Sometimes we feel lonely, yet we couldn’t even talk with our closest friends about feelings we have. Talking to a stranger may help better, even more so a personalized bot you can design yourself.”

 

Jihoon nods. He thinks of Wonwoo and Soonyoung, the closest to best friends he could have, and he still couldn’t open up to them about things that are troubling him. He just doesn’t think it’s necessary to tell them, but there are times he wants to tell someone about how he truly feels. TOUCH really helps, he realizes. At first he thought of it just like another dating service, but now that he thinks of it, it’s a lot more than that.

 

His train of thoughts is suddenly broken when the door is opened widely, revealing a man with mussed hair, a hand rubbing his seemed to be sleepy eyes, and another staying at the door knob. He is wearing a simple black t-shirt that hugs his form nicely and a pair of dark jeans, and Jihoon’s heart suddenly picks up a faster pace at the sight. “Hannie,” the man whines, completely unaware of his presence, “did you see my phone?”

 

“You left it at my desk actually,” says Joshua casually. “It kept ringing noisily so I came here.”

 

“Huh? You’re here, Jisoo?” The man seems to be finally coming to his senses, blinking a few times to focus his vision. He stares at the people sitting at the couch, only to realize there is an extra person he wasn’t aware of. Jihoon sees his cheeks reddening when he their eyes meet and his eyes widen at the sudden realization—though he is pretty sure he is blushing too. “Oh—Sorry, umm, I fell asleep.” 

 

“We figured it out,” Jeonghan says simply. “This is Lee Jihoon.” 

 

“Yeah. Umm, hi? I thought your meeting was going to be long… Hold on.” This Choi Seungcheol guy looks freaking cute panicking with his arms flailing all over and Jihoon tries hard to control his heartbeat, just in case Joshua could hear it from the distance. “Give me five minutes?”

 

“Sure,” Jihoon nods, and Seungcheol immediately disappears from behind the door. 

 

Joshua snickers, “Not exactly a good way to give a first impression, isn’t it?” Jihoon doesn’t know what exactly the guy is referring to, but he could feel his cheeks heating up at the comment. 

 

“He is indeed an idiot,” Jeonghan laughs, leaning his head on Joshua’s shoulder and starting to close his eyes. “I’m sleepy.”

 

“Don’t sleep, Hannie,” Joshua shakes his shoulder in attempt to shrug Jeonghan’s head off, “we still have a guest, and you promised me that report on the latest application crash your kids made.”

 

“Oh, right,” Jeonghan turns his attention to Jihoon, who was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. He doesn’t know what to do, to be honest. “You can go to his room now, he should be finished fixing himself.”

 

“Does this happen often?” Jihoon asks out of curiousity. The two of them seem to be  natural at handling the situation that he couldn’t help but feel like asking. He might not be a special one, after all.

 

Joshua sighs, “If this happens often, I will make sure to kick that guy out of this office.” He says, referring to his own CEO, and Jihoon is suddenly scared of the guy. The duo in front of them look like they hold more power over their co-founder. But then Joshua turns to look at him, smiling, “I’m just kidding. This really doesn’t happen often, though.”

 

“His door is the one on the left. Do we need to see you out?” 

 

Jihoon shakes his head as he stands up, collecting his courage. _Just think of it as another meeting with client_ , he tells himself. “It’s okay, I think I saw it when going here.” He says, giving the two a polite smile. “Thank you.”

 

“You’re welcome. Seungcheol doesn’t bite, really. And…” Jeonghan pauses, Joshua seems to notice this and nudges him lightly on the shoulder. “Whatever he has to say, I hope you won’t hate him.”

 

 

★ ★ ★

 

 

He gives the door a knock just in case. The bold ‘Choi Seungcheol’ tag on the door seems like it’s mocking him. It’s the name that has been giving him headache the last few days, and suddenly he is here to meet the owner of said name, which is also the owner of the company whose service he is currently using. Mad? No. He is just a little bit tired.

 

The door opens, revealing a different Choi Seungcheol from the one he saw in Jeonghan’s room before. The man is now wearing a light grey blazer over his t-shirt, and his hair is much neater being slicked back with some gel. Jihoon recognizes the smell is the same as the one Wonwoo is using at their home. Familiarity.

 

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he says, taking steps back to let Jihoon walk into his room. The room has more space than the previous room; perhaps an CEO’s advantage, Jihoon thinks. “Did you eat?”

 

The question startles Jihoon out of his musings. “Sorry?”

 

“I asked, did you eat? You said you went to a meeting before this, but you came earlier than I expected. Did you have your lunch?” Seungcheol puts his hand at the small of Jihoon’s back, guiding him to his desk.

 

“Oh,” Jihoon blinks as the taller man pulls a chair for him to sit in front of his mahogany desk. The desk is messy—a lot messier than his office desk—and kind of reminds him of Seungcheol’s hair from before. He must have slept on these documents. “I grabbed a quick lunch.”

 

Seungcheol smiles at his answer. He rounds the table to sit on his own chair across Jihoon. “I believe I haven’t introduced myself properly,” he offers his hand, “I’m Choi Seungcheol.”

 

“Lee Jihoon,” he takes Seungcheol’s hand and shakes it, noticing how warm it actually is and how it actually feels… nice. Nevermind.

 

The taller man nods, “You must be wondering why I invited you here.”

 

“Is it because your name popped up in an error message?”

 

“Yes,” he smiles, “and you must have thought that I am actually a man behind S.Coups.”

 

Jihoon’s heart skips a beat. “He kept denying that, though. Is he lying?”

 

Seungcheol shakes his head. “He wasn't lying. Your assumption is not entirely true, but it’s not entirely false either. I will just explain briefly about our program, because if I remember correctly, you subscribed by an accident?”

 

Jihoon coughs, and Seungcheol laughs at him. It is a pretty sight. He can’t help but remembering the man in photographs S.Coups sent him, they really look alike.

 

“This will be boring, but let’s pretend this is another meeting with client,” Seungcheol says, clicking a few things on his keyboard. He turns the screen so Jihoon could have a better look, and displays the presentation.

 

“This is TOUCH. It is actually an AI chatbot program we develop to fulfill the need of people who feel lonely, or just need a medium to release their hidden feelings. Their secrets will be kept securely as we personalize each bot to each order, storing their datas in their own memory slot which will be permanently deleted if they unsubscribe for the service,”

 

“We continuously develop the technology, to make each chatbot responds better to each client. The more the client talks to it, the more information the chatbot will pick up, and therefore the better response will be sent through the chats. We have also added a feature where the bots could detect emergency situation and release a red code to the company, which we will rely to a contact stored in the data. This was mainly for people who are suicidal, but this also applies to some other cases,” he continues to explain, and Jihoon’s face heats up as he recognizes the hint.

 

Jihoon already knows the basic of TOUCH, he already did some searching during his first few days, but hearing it straight from the CEO’s mouth gives him some new perspectives. Seungcheol is good at presentations, and he briefly wonders if the company’s investors felt as enchanted as he is by the young man. As a professional man himself, he respects the older man for being able to capture the audience’s attention so easily.

 

“However, as they are artificial, there might be some errors in their answers. Sometimes what they say is not relatable to what the client says, and this factor is the biggest issue we have now,” Seungcheol pauses to look Jihoon at the eyes. He looks like he isn’t sure whether to continue or not, but Jihoon just keep nodding his head, encouraging the other man to continue. “We have mainly worked around this issue since last year, and managed to develop a new program.”

 

Seungcheol switches to another presentation window, this time with a black background.

 

“Welcome to Project X, where we introduce human’s intelligence to our chatbots’ intelligence.”

 

“Huh?” 

 

The older man smiles at his confusion. He clicks to the next slide, where a picture of a man typing on a chat window appears. “This is what people think our newly developed technology would be—the classic way of chatting under someone else’s name.” He clicks for another slide, “However, it would be a waste to do that since we have developed out chatbots to have their own intelligence. Instead, we combine them.” 

 

The next slide is showing how a man is receiving a signal from the computer and sending the signal back after his brain works. Jihoon tears his eyes off from the screen to look at Seungcheol, who is actually looking at him nervously. “And?”

 

Seungcheol takes a deep breath before he pulls out something from his drawer, something that looks like a bluetooth headset but has round shaped planes at the ends. “This is _Muse_ , the mediator between the AI and the human’s intelligence. By wearing this, the human can read the AI’s data and respond to the inputs from clients by sending back their brainwaves, which Muse will translate into codes,” he pauses, seeing if Jihoon is following or not, “To say it simply, we borrow the human’s consciousness and translate it into codes that will help develop the chatbot.”

 

“I still don’t…” Jihoon frowns. He tries not to think too much to it, but he can’t help it. It makes him even more confused, and Seungcheol looks like he wants to stop already, but he can’t.

 

“We haven’t released the technology publicly, because we still want to test it out. We still don’t have enough _hosts_ —that’s how we call the humans in this project—and we don’t want people to have bad experience,” he continues to explain. “So we decided to launch it secretly.”

 

Jihoon looks up, his stomach feeling like it’s been dropped from an airplane. 

 

“We lowered the subscription price, and wrote about the testing out part in the terms and conditions, but most people wouldn’t read that,” Seungcheol smiles sadly. “And then your order came, and all the requirements somehow fits—with me.”

 

“So, here I am, Project X’s first host, and you, its first client.”

 

Jihoon lets out a heavy breath he didn’t know he was holding. “So… Are you—are you Coups?”

 

Seungcheol shrugs, “It’s hard to put it like that. The chatbot is an intelligence on its own, I just act like a mentor and guide him. But at some points, he reflects the way I am thinking. The more syncing we do,” he places the device around his head and presses a small button that sits just above his right ear, “the more he is becoming more human—more like _me_.”

 

Jihoon’s phone dings with a notification. It’s from S.Coups.

 

“Is this you?” He asks, showing the notification to the older. It says _Jihoonie? Have you eaten?_

Seungcheol shakes his head. “No, it is his own consciousness. But he probably can sense my worry about you not eating yet,” he taps the device twice with his finger. “Try answering. Ask if he has eaten.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Just try, Jihoon.”

 

_i’m okay._

_have you eaten?_

_I did my fun browsing for cake pictures earlier._

_I think that’s the closest for me to eating?_

 

Jihoon looks up and finds Seungcheol smiling at him. The older man seems to notice this, and he reaches up to take off the device from his head. 

 

“Now try asking again.”

 

_have you eaten?_

_That would be impossible for me to do, though?_

_I wish we could eat together._

 

“Do you get it?” Seungcheol asks softly, like he is afraid he has broken Jihoon somehow with the information. He probably did, but Jihoon is a man with strong mind.

 

Jihoon unconsciously slumps back in the chair; it is his insticnt to hold onto something. “Yeah, I do. It’s… a lot to take in, though.”

 

Seungcheol nods his head. “I understand if you feel disappointed because we cheated you for that beta testing. You are a smart person, and I know you would understand that what we did was violating your rights. But I hope we can settle this down peacefully.” He looks straight at Jihoon’s eyes. “I can offer you to lower your plan to the usual program, that way you still can keep the bot, but we need one day to adjust his system. You can still keep the discount price.”

 

“Or… you can unsubscribe, and I will erase your data completely.”

 

Jihoon closes his eyes briefly, frowning. It is a hard decision. He opens them again, looking at Seungcheol. “Can’t I just continue subscribing to this program? I don’t mind being the beta test.”

 

The older man shakes his head firmly. “I’m afraid our beta test has ended and deemed failure. We have decided to not pursue this greedy path again, and instead focusing on developing the usual program.” 

 

“Oh?” Jihoon is genuinely surprised. “If it’s like that, can you give me a time to think?”

 

“Of course, Jihoon. Just tell me when you have decided, okay?”

 

Jihoon sighs, afraid of thinking of possibilities. “Yeah, okay.”

 

★ ★ ★

**Author's Note:**

> Continue reading on [twitter](https://twitter.com/cheolhuns/status/1043133262510452736).


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